September Events 2012

Summer is over but the weather is still very nice for outdoor activities.

Check them out by clicking on each event!

In Toronto
- Toronto International Film Festival (September 6-16)
- Queen Street West Art Crawl (September 14-16)
- Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival (September 14-16)
- Thornhill Village Festival (September 15) 
- Vietnamese Lantern Festival (September 15)
- Fortune Cooking Food Festival (September 16)
- Korean Harvest Festival (September 15-16)
- Fall Home Show (September 20-23)
- The Word on the Street Festival (September 23)
- Ontario Science Center Free Community Day (September 23) 
- Canada's Baking and Sweets Show (September 28-30)
- Scotiabank Nuit Blanche (September 29-30)
- Pedestrian Sunday Festival in Kensington Market (September 30)
- Soupalicious (September 30)
- Toronto Underground Market 1st B-day (September 30)
 
 
Mid-distance to Toronto
-  James Street Hamilton Arts Supercrawl (September 14-15)
- Doors Open King Town (September 15)
- St. George Applefest (September 15-16)
- Uxbridge Studio Tour (September 15-16)
- Ocala Winery Harvest Festival (September 15-16)
- Doors Open Waterloo Region (September 15)
- Doors Open Haldimand County (September 15)
- Hills of Erin Studio Tour (September 15-16, 22-23) 
- Savour Stratford Culinary Festival (September 21-23)
- Durham Savour the Season Festival (September 12-23) 
- Niagara Wine Festival (September 21-31) 
- Uxbridge Celebration of the arts: ART Happening Street pARTy (September 22)


Far from Toronto
- Native Festival (September 15-16)
- Wild for the Arts (September 15-16)
- Door Open Quinte West (September 15)
- Hike Haliburton Festival (September 20-23)
- Muskoka Autumn Studio Tour (September 22-23, 29-30)

Nuit Blanche - Interactive Landscape Dune

Nuit Blanche - Japanese Tea Ceremony

Nuit Blanche - Fireflies

Nuit Blanche - Circulatory System

Nuit Blanche - Swan Lake

Nuit Blanche - Endgame

August Events 2012

A lot of things are happening in August. Check them out by clicking on each event!

In Toronto
- Dusk Dances (August 2-7)
- Caribana Parade (August 4) 
- Rogers Cup Tennis Tournament (August 4-12) 
- Wild Blueberry Festival (August 11)
- Taste of Danforth: Greek food festival (August 10-12)
- Blackout Festival (August 10-19)
- Five Senses Festival (August 17-18)
- International Street Festival (August 17-19)
- Canadian National Exhibition CNE (August 17-September 3) 
- A Synonym for Love: Opera on-the-move (August 19-31)
- Toronto Buskerfest (August 23-26)
- Fan Expo (August 23-26)
- TaiwanFest @ Harbourfront (August 24-26)
- Shakespeare in High Park: A Mid-summer Night's Dream (June 26-September 2)
- Cavalia's Odysseo (August-September 2) 
- Circus! The Exhibition @ Ontario Science Center (till September 3)
- Emerging Artist Summer Exhibition (August 31-September 2)
- Fashionality (May-September 3)
 


Mid-distance to Toronto
- Aurora Jazz Festival (August 3-5)
- Kempenfest at Barrie's waterfront (August 3-6)
- Cobourg Sandcastle Festival (August 4-5)
- Orillia Waterfront Festival (August 10-12)
- Teddy Bear Picnic (August 16)
- Markham Jazz Festival (August 16-19)
- Mosaic South Asian Heritage Festival (August 16-19)
- Barrie Caribfest (August 17-19) 
- Dundas Cactus Festival (August 17-19)
- Port Credit Buskerfest (August 17-19)
- Burlington Sandcastle/Children Festival (August 18-19)
- Summerfeast (August 14-September 2) 
- Winona Peach Festival (August 24-26)
- Copper Kettle Festival (August 25)


Far from Toronto
- Balm Beach Summerama (August 10-11) 
- Turkey Point Summer fest (August 8-12)
- Grand Bend Aqua fest (August 10-12)
- Goderich Celtic Roots Festival (August 10-12)
- Kingston Sheep Dog Trials (August 10-12)
- Verona Cattail Festival (August 10-12)
- Canal, Railway, Music Festival (August 10-12) 
- Sauble Beach Sand Festival (August 10-12)
- Sundridge Sunflower Festival (August 10-12)
- Forest Festival (August 15-19)
- Leamington Tomato Festival (August 15-19)
- Buckhorn Fine Art Festival (August 17-19)
- A Cirque-Tacular Event at Blue Mountain Village (August 18-19)
- Port Dover Summer Festival (August 18-19)
- Athens Cornfest (August 18)
- Tecumseh Corn Festival (August 23-26)
- Balloonpalooza (August 25-26)

An example of a sand sculpture festival

Lots of arts and crafts and other vendor booths at Kempenfest

Fire show at Toronto Buskerfest

Another show at Toronto Buskerfest... very impressive

Food at Taste of Danforth

Have a happy long weekend everyone! :)

July 2012 Events (Part 2)

Add on a few more events that I notice are happening this weekend:

- Shinsedai Cinema (New Generation of Japanese Films) Festival (July 12-15) 
- Unity Hip-Hop Festival (July 12-15)
- Panamerican Latin-Jazz Festival (July 14)
- Natus Matsuri and Obon Festival (July 14) 
- Lego Fan Festival & Expo (July 14-15)

Weekend is almost here! Yay!

Lego Expo

July 2012 Events

Busy with online courses, not a lot of time or motivation to update this blog :P I have decided to give monthly instead of weekly updates/suggestions. And then update as I come up with more ideas.

So far for this month:

Food Festivals 

- Ribfest (June-August)
- Summerlicious (July 6-22)
- Taste of Lawrence (July 6-8)
- Night It Up! (July 13-15)
- Taste of Thailand (July 14-15)
- Lobster Lovers Festival (July 19)
- T & T Waterfront Night Market (July 20-22)

- Hot & Spicy Festival (July 20-22)
- TO Food Festival (July 29)

Other Festivals

- Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (July 6-8)
- Lavender Festival (July 14-15)
- Farm Crawl Hamilton (July 14)
- Beaches International Jazz Festival (July 20-29)
- Live Green Toronto Festival (July 21)

Click on the title of each event to see more details.

Have a great summer everyone! Stay cool! 

Bears love the purple lavender fields! Hard to believe this place is just 1 hr drive from Toronto!

Your typical summer street/food festival. There's almost one (or more than one) per week in Toronto.

Your typical outdoor food selling booth at a night market festival . A variety of multicultural cuisine and snacks are available. Some work till late nights which is atypical in Toronto.

Outdoor art exhibition. All FREE!

  

Luminato: The Festival of Creativity

The Encampment

1000 Tastes of Toronto

Carretilla Initiative

June 8-17, 2012
http://www.luminato.com/ 


This is my second time volunteering at this festival, but definitely not my second time enjoying the events that are offered by this festival. Most events are free and accessible by public transportation. The unique aspect about Luminato is that it offers activities in a wide range of topics, from visual arts, to dance, to music, to theatre, to magic, to food, to fashion, to literature etc. 


Last time I was just an ambassador while this year I took on a new role and was one of the Volunteer Team Leader. It was an interesting and rewarding experience because I got to manage adults (normally I'd be managing kids only!!!). This motivates me to look into this field and I'm looking to possibly enroll in a volunteers management course to expand my skills.

Ok, let's go back and talk about this year's festival. I think the 1000 Tastes of Toronto turned out pretty well. I think the distillery district was a great venue to host the event and there were a lot of variety in food choices and the price was reasonable ($5 per dish). The Carretilla Initiative was pretty cool idea as well: real-time cooking on wheels with the participants and then eating the meal together. The Encampment at Fort York is an educational project depicting memories/impact of the war of 1812. Each installation within the 200 tents are different. Personally I think the exhibit can be more meaningful if they have a sound installation within each tent explaining briefly the story behind each one.

Others such as the magic shows look interesting (e.g. blind magician, magic in the dark etc.) but each ticket costs $35 :( (only 1 of the 3 show is free). There are plenty of free concerts on weeknights or weekend nights, depending whether you like those musicians or not. The art installation is pretty limited this year... there is one in the ROM that I want to check out, called Beethoven 1-32, which uses visual arts to represent music... a very innovative idea... so looking at the painting = listening to the actual music! Should evoke the same emotions...


Have a great weekend everyone... the weather is gonna be awesome for outdoor activities!

Weekend of Mar 31-Apr 1

[Aside] I'm a bit behind in updating my blog lately because I've been distracted by my Ipod Apps... some games are really addictive lol :P

Earth Hour Celebration
March 31, 7:30-9:30pm
Distillery District
http://earthhour.wwf.ca/earthhour/index.html

The official celebration of Earth Hour with WWF (Turn off the lights for 1 hr to raise global environmental awareness for combating climate change) in Torono with performances, art show and more! Participants are encouraged to bring along candles, glowsticks, lanterns, and flashlights!








One of a Kind Spring Art Show and Sale
March 28-April 1, 10am-9pm
$12 online, $14 at door
Direct Energy Center, CNE
http://www.oneofakindshow.com/toronto/

Showcasing handmade arts and crafts products! A nice exhibition to find unique gifts for friends and family.










A Night of Fashion, Art, and Music for Japan
March 30, 7pm-2am
$10 (80% of that goes to charity - Habitat for Humanity Japan)
The Great Hall
http://www.japanaidtoronto.com/index.html

A night of fashion show, live music, silent auction, and dancing to raise money for the Japan's Earthquake and Tsunami survivors


Piano Recital of Music from Beethoven, Brahms, Webern, Bach by Erion Tulina
March 30, 8pm
FREE
Grace Church on the Hill
http://www.gracechurchonthehill.ca/

Weekend of Mar 3-4

Japanese Doll Festival

Date: Mar 3, 12-5pm

Location: Japan Foundation

Cost: Free

See the Japanese Dolls display, watch a Japanese tale presentation, and play with the cute baby seal robot!

The Artist Project

Date: Mar 1-4

Location: Exhibition Place

Cost: $10 online, $12 at door

Website: http://www.theartistprojecttoronto.com/

Presenting original works from over 200 independent contemporary artists of various mediums of art, from paintings to installations and video art

The Toronto Golf & Travel Show

Date: Mar 2-4

Location: Metro Toronto Convention Centre

Cost: $15 ($8 after 2pm on Sunday)

Website: http://www.torontogolfshow.com/

North America’s largest consumer golf show, showcasing deals on the latest golf equipment and destinations

Sugarbush Maple Syrup Festival

Date: Mar 3-Apr 9, 9:30am-5pm

Location: Bruce’s Mill Conservation Area or Kortright Centre for Conservation

Cost: $9

Website: http://maplesyrupfest.com/

Live demonstrations of maple syrup, wagon rides, pancakes and more

Two upcoming performances

Mythbusters: Behind the Myths

Date: Mar 29

Location: Sony Centre for the Performing Arts

Cost: $50-160

Website: http://www.sonycentre.ca/Events/Event-Detail.aspx?evtID=645

Watching first hand TV scientists Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage on stage to confirm or bust urban legends, rumours and movie scenes on their popular, Emmy-nominated Discovery Channel series, Mythbusters. Fans get a chance to join them onstage!

Music from Final Fantasy

Date: Mar 31

Location: Sony Centre for the Performing Arts

Cost: $35-125

Website: http://www.sonycentre.ca/Events/Event-Detail.aspx?evtID=477

Featuring music from the record-breaking video game series “Final Fantasy” by Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, conducted by Grammy Award-winning conductor, composer, and record producer Arnie Roth, perform live with the most memorable game sequences on a 22’ wide video screen

Let's learn how to play harp & speak Japanese!

Recently, I have done two interesting things besides the usual stuff. One is that I went to an introductory harp exploratory lesson. Second is that I participated in an introductory Japanese class.

Let's talk about the harp experience first. It was so coooooooooooooool! I have always like the heavenly sound of harp music and it was upon browsing through the One of a Kind Arts and Craft Show that I picked up a flyer promoting a discounted harp intro class ($40 instead of $60 for 1 hour). It took place at a room inside a church and there were 7-8 other adults (all were female except for one!) who came. We briefly introduced ourselves and most of us had some sort of music background. Our instructor was a young and attractive Chinese man named Andrew Chan. He talked about his background and the history of harp, and then got us experiemented with the various sized harps. Because of the similarity between piano and harp, most of us could locate the notes pretty easily and began playing some simple chords and tunes. It took me a bit of guidance and time to adjust to the proper way to strike the strings, but once I got a hang of it it was really fun! And to finish things off he played a piece on harp that he composed... is was so pretty! If I have more time and money I'm tempted to take some more lessons... maybe in the future la ^_^

For more information about the harp instructor/lesson and his upcoming performances, go to: http://www.andrewchanharpist.com/

I also took a 3-sessions (2 hours each) FREE Japanese course offered by the Japan Foundation. The goal was to inspire people to learn Japanese. It focused on learning Katakana (one of the three Japanese writing system) through Manga. The Japanese instructor was quite patient with us beginners. I think it's great for those who have no previous knowledge of Japanese and want to learn a little, and for those who learnt before (like me) but have forgot due to the lack of practice. Although the use may not be very practical, it's a great way to get engaged in the language and a chance to practice speaking some Japanese words outloud without embarrassment. But it's not intended for more advanced speakers because it'd be too easy.

This course will be offer again in mid-February. And some more advanced courses on Japanese pronounciation will be offer in March. For more information, check out: http://www.jftor.org/whatson/20120131KatakanaClass.php